1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for managing devices on a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a management apparatus, which forms a user interface using HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) and HTML (HyperText Markup Language) to be configured to operate as a Web server, and manages network devices, is available. The network devices are peripheral devices connected to a network, and include printers, digital MFPs, and the like. Such management apparatus allows the user to execute a management operation from a personal computer (to be abbreviated as “PC” hereinafter) serving as a client via a Web browser (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-353140 (FIG. 2)) Some of network device management apparatuses of this type detect the occurrence of a status or event to which the administrator should give an attention, e.g., the occurrence of a trouble, and notify the administrator of the occurrence of that event via e-mail (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-015973 (FIG. 16)).
Some of e-mail messages for such notification describe a URL (Universal Resource Locator) used to directly access a management window in their body text. Upon reception of such e-mail message, the administrator clicks or double-clicks on the URL described in the mail message to directly display the management window of the network device management apparatus, and can execute the management operation via that window (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-108448 (FIG. 7)).
Also, another management apparatus assigns an identifier unique to each notification to an e-mail message that notifies of the occurrence of an event or status, generates a unique URL according to a reply from the administrator who received this identifier via e-mail, and sends it to the administrator (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-141772 (FIG. 2)). With this configuration, only the administrator who received the e-mail message can view that management window.